Parents: get out your No. 2 pencils, it’s the start of the school year! As any parent of a school-age child knows, there seems to be a never-ending supply of required forms. I thought there were a lot to complete for the start of Kindergarten, but the forms continued throughout the school year and summer. There were forms for the after-school program, health forms for sports, forms for each summer camp, and now forms for the new classroom teacher.

Talking about this frenzy of forms with another mom/organizer friend, she shared her secret: she keeps a copy of the form before turning it in. What a brilliant idea! Often the information required is the same each year (emergency contacts, doctor’s phone number, insurance information, for example). Why not have a copy to make it easier to fill out next time?

I’m going to take this one step further: scan the form. Then I’ll have the information for easy reference for the next time, but not the paper.

Organizing Tips